Health and Fitness Tips: Get Fit and Stay Fit.
Here are some tips for both health and fitness that will help you lose weight, discover ways to maintain a better healthy lifestyle, and be in the best shape of your life – all the smart way!

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

The New Year is here. One New Year's resolution for many people is to lose weight and to keep it off. Unfortunately, for some, this can be such a daunting task that their resolve lasts for a few months at best. The good news is that weight loss does not have to be difficult. With the right mindset, it is possible to lose weight and keep it off. Here are 10 tips to assist in this process. Tip #1: Focus on making small changes each step of the way. For most people, successful weight loss involves not only a diet change, but a lifestyle change as well. Since this can be overwhelming for some, it is best to take baby steps. For instance, instead of signing-up for a full year's membership at a gym, go for a few months or try walking in the neighborhood three times a week for thirty minutes. Once this is done habitually it becomes part of one's lifestyle. Tip #2: Eat 100% organic, virgin, and unrefined coconut oil. There is research which supports this as an aid in weight loss. Tip #3: Eat apples, preferably organic, every day. Apples decrease appetite and stabilize blood sugar. Eat at least one apple per day. Tip #4: Stay away from fast foods. These foods are loaded with harmful fats, preservatives, and other chemicals. If one has to eat out, try to eat at a restaurant and make healthy choices such as eating a large salad, a baked potato, and broiled meats instead of fried foods. Tip #5: Do a liver cleanse. Many people have livers which are clogged and not working efficiently. Health food stores carry a variety of cleansing products. Tip #6: Use organic apple cider vinegar. Apple cider vinegar helps to eliminate fat cells from the body. Take a few teaspoons prior to each meal. Apple cider vinegar can be found in health food stores. Tip #7: Add hot pepper to food. It is amazing what something hot and spicy can do for the metabolism. Hot peppers not only increase metabolism, but also help the body burn off fat more efficiently. Organic hot salsa is best. Tip #8: Eat a large organic salad at lunch and dinner. The key is organic, if possible. If salad dressing is used, it should be organic olive oil, organic vinegar, and fresh organic lemon juice. Tip #9: Stay away from refined foods such as sugar and enriched products such as white flour, white rice, white bread, and pasta that is not organic or whole grain. These foods have no nutritional value. Tip #10: Be positive! Don't say "I'm going to try to lose weight", but "I'm going to lose weight and feel great." Be committed to staying on course and making those necessary lifestyle and dietary changes. With this mindset, one cannot help but be successful. Weight loss does not have to be overwhelming and difficult. Commit to trying at least a few of the steps above and expect to lose weight and feel great! Published by : Women2Women TeamWomen Articles Collection : Get information on relationships advice, household hints, women's health, women's medical information, fashion, clothing, shopping, hair care, skin care, cosmetic, weight loss, fitness, wedding, bridal, jewelry, cooking and more...

Friday, March 17, 2006

Make Your Health Insurance Plan Work for YouNo matter how avidly you take care of your health, there are unexpected circumstances that can land you a day or two in the hospital. If you are not prepared and you do not have enough health insurance coverage, this can cut a great deal with your savings. Thus, it is very important that you choose the best health insurance plan that can help you in case of an emergency. First, check out all the health insurance options that you have. Consider your family’s health needs as well when signing-up for an insurance plan. There are two types of health insurance plan that you can sign-up for: private and government health insurance options. The private health insurance is personally signed-up for by an individual. You will also have a health insurance plan when you are employed. The company will provide you with coverage as part of your employee benefits. The health insurance coverage provided by the government may be offered on a local, state or national level. Medicare is an example of a health insurance plan offered on a national level. Medicare benefits are available for people who are over 65 years of age, and to persons with disabilities. Other government-initiated health insurance programs include: Medicaid, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, health care benefits for the veterans and military, as well as eligible American Indians. If you want to sign-up for a private health insurance plan, learn everything that you need to know about the coverage stipulated on your contract. Read the coverage information and check the sections stating the exclusions. Avoid signing up for one which has a long list of exclusions that would not cover much of anything. More importantly, make sure that you have a copy of every contract that you will sign. See to it that your personal information is correct and make a note of the coverage period. All in all, make sure that you have ample health insurance coverage for you to use whenever you need it.

Monday, March 13, 2006

"The Way to Wellness" It's time to start a Healthy life: your 7 days program

How many times have you gone to sleep at night, swearing you'll go to the gym in the morning, and then changing your mind just eight hours later because when you get up, you don't feel like exercising?

While this can happen to the best of us, it doesn't mean you should drop the ball altogether when it comes to staying fit. What people need to realize is that staying active and eating right are critical for long-term health and wellness -- and that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The more you know about how your body responds to your lifestyle choices, the better you can customize a nutrition and exercise plan that is right for you. When you eat well, increase your level of physical activity, and exercise at the proper intensity, you are informing your body that you want to burn a substantial amount of fuel. This translates to burning fat more efficiently for energy.In other words, proper eating habits plus exercise equals fast metabolism, which, in turn gives you more energy throughout the day and allows you to do more physical work with less effort.

The true purpose of exercise is to send a repetitive message to the body asking for improvement in metabolism, strength, aerobic capacity and overall fitness and health. Each time you exercise, your body responds by upgrading its capabilities to burn fat throughout the day and night, Exercise doesn't have to be intense to work for you, but it does need to be consistent.

I recommend engaging in regular cardiovascular exercise four times per week for 20 to 30 minutes per session, and resistance training four times per week for 20 to 25 minutes per session. This balanced approach provides a one-two punch, incorporating aerobic exercise to burn fat and deliver more oxygen, and resistance training to increase lean body mass and burn more calories around the block.

* Resistance Training -- Train all major muscle groups. One to two sets of each exercise. Rest 45 seconds between sets.

* Aerobic Exercise -- Pick two favorite activities, they could be jogging, rowing, biking or cross-country skiing, whatever fits your lifestyle. Perform 12 to 15 minutes of the first activity and continue with 10 minutes of the second activity. Cool down during the last five minutes.

When starting an exercise program, it is important to have realistic expectations. Depending on your initial fitness level, you should expect the following changes early on.

* From one to eight weeks -- Feel better and have more energy.

* From two to six months -- Lose size and inches while becoming leaner. Clothes begin to fit more loosely. You are gaining muscle and losing fat.

* After six months -- Start losing weight quite rapidly.

Once you make the commitment to exercise several times a week, don't stop there. You should also change your diet and/or eating habits,' says Zwiefel. Counting calories or calculating grams and percentages for certain nutrients is impractical. Instead, I suggest these easy-to-follow guidelines:

* Eat several small meals (optimally four) and a couple of small snacks throughout the day * Make sure every meal is balanced -- incorporate palm-sized proteins like lean meats, fish, egg whites and dairy products, fist-sized portions of complex carbohydrates like whole-wheat bread and pasta, wild rice, multigrain cereal and potatoes, and fist-sized portions of vegetable and fruits * Limit your fat intake to only what's necessary for adequate flavor * Drink at least eight 8-oz. glasses of water throughout the day * I also recommend that you take a multi-vitamin each day to ensure you are getting all the vitamins and minerals your body needs.

I suppose that's all I can think of for now. I should extend my thanks to a doctor friend of mine. Without him, I wouldn't be able to write this article, or keep my sanity.

People all over the world are becoming more and more health conscious, the priority has been shifting from everything else to the fact that the most important thing in life, is to keep oneself in shape and fit, to enjoy things in life. Keeping fit, means capturing the days of youth and all the fun of those days alive. Man can give up everything for the sake of keeping himself young. In spite of all the kinds of treatments that have been flourishing the market, the people have not been driven crazy, they still trust the basic natural way of keeping in shape, i.e., by exercising regularly and maintaining a working routine. It is very necessary to go for a complete fitness training, which takes care of all the aspects of making a fit body, beginning from making note about the right kind of diet and right kind of exercises which suits the physical conditions of the body.The several benefits that are derived from the regular physical fitness workouts. Workout chalked out in correspondence to the physical needs of the body, if observed regularly, may help the body get into the desired shape and develop resistance power in the body. The major benefits derived from fitness training programs are bringing down the weight of the bulky body to right proportion, increases the resistance power in the body which results in decreasing the risks of getting attacked by diseases, helps in cutting down the fat from the body and finally gives the body a toned shape. Not only these, but also helps in frequently getting caught in depressions, cures insomnia by helping enhance the sleeping routine, releases positive vibes in the body and thus increases self-esteem and apart from these also gives more energy and stamina to the body.Fitness training also helps in increasing the metabolism of the body, which means more muscles using more calories in body. The training helps increase fit muscles in body, by burning the calories. After the body grows senile, the body loses its muscles and the metabolism of the body slows down gradually, which means the calories of the body is not burnt and get concentrated which results in increasing the weight of the body. So to keep the metabolism from slowing down and not letting the fat concentrate in the body one can opt for some fitness training and take some aerobic activities. Taking exercises not only helps one maintain a strong and toned look from outside but also helps in keeping the mental peace and content. It also helps in reducing symptoms of menopause, cardiac diseases and keeps the level of cholesterol in control. And in all it gives the body a much toned shape, which not only looks strong but is stronger than what it looks like.

Saturday, March 11, 2006

There are two basic things you need to know when you are setting up an exercise program . . .

You need twenty to forty minutes of aerobic exercise three to four times a week.

You need to include strength training at least twice a week, but preferably three times a week.

If you absolutely, positively are going to choose only aerobic exercise or strength exercise - choose aerobic exercise. You are exercising your heart muscle and aside from the obvious advantage to that, aerobic exercise will help you maintain your weight. You need to keep in mind, however, that muscle burns fat, so if you can toss in about fifty push-ups before your aerobic exercise, you will reap the benefits.... Why strength exercise before aerobic exercise? Actually, for the first twenty minutes of your aerobic exercise, you are burning about eighty per cent carbohydrates and twenty per cent fat. If your goal is to lose weight, you want to burn more fat and less carbs, right? Well, the next twenty minutes will get you into about a fifty/fifty mode. You're burning a lot more fat than you were and that's a good thing. If you go beyond forty minutes, you will be burning about eighty per cent fat. Realistically though, most people are not going to exercise for that long. Twenty to thirty minutes of aerobic exercise is about average. If you start out doing pushups, you actually start the aerobic activity...not much, but it's a start. So, when you begin your aerobic exercise, you may begin burning that fat a little quicker. OK - Now to start! First, find an aerobic exercise you enjoy. More than one type of exercise is best as you can keep your workouts interesting and it will help keep your routine from getting stale. Let's say running is an exercise you enjoy and you also like aerobics, like using some of the exercise tapes from Richard Simmons. Now, plan your schedule by selecting the days and times you can do the exercise. Make it at least three days a week and do not take more than two days off in a row. The most popular routine is Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Most fitness experts highly recommend trying to exercise at the same time on those days; not a necessity but it helps get you into a routine and you're more likely to continue. If you're not going to do strength training, as mentioned earlier, at least do some push-ups. Be sure to start your routine with a warmup, and gradually increase the tempo. If you're following an exercise tape, it's fairly simple to know what intensity you should be doing. If you are running, try throwing in periods of faster running along the way, followed by slower running. This will really get you in shape. Do the aerobic tape routine on some days and on the days you feel like going on a run, go run. If you decide to strength train as well, do this two to three times a week! A good routine should include: -Biceps Curl -Triceps Curl -Shoulder Press -Bench Press -Lunges -Calf Raises Work up to two to three sets of eight repetitions for each exercise. This will give you a full body workout. Do this for a month and see if you don't feel a difference.

Friday, March 10, 2006

Body Temperature Update..!We already know that your body temperature works and ticks like an internal clock controlling our sleeping cycles. Body temperature also controls the metabolism, circulation and other involuntary activities our body undertakes.Variation in body temperature also indicates and induces the feeling of being awake or being tired.Reduction in body temperature induces the feeling of lethargy, tiredness and drowsiness. Conversely, a rise in body temperature induces the feeling of alertness, feeling of being energetic resulting in better concentration levels. The rise and fall of body temperature during the day should not be misinterpreted as the need to rest or sleep. This happens many a times during the day depending upon the body’s activity level at a given time.When a human body is pushed for heavy physical activity, the body temperature automatically rises and drops slowly once the activity is stopped. This reduction of body temperature induces a feeling of tiredness or drowsiness.When your body does intensive physical work during the day, you feel tired when you come back home and just want to sleep. This does not happen due to desire of sleep, but due to drop in body temperature, and the reaction of your body due to the drop in temperature.If you let this phase pass and wait till your body temperature returns to normal, you will start feeling awake and alert again.In order to recharge your physical energies, I would suggest, as a part of my Powerful Sleep Plan, to take a nap of 10 – 45 minutes during the day. This nap should be taken when you feel sleepy, that is when your body temperature has dropped as it will help in falling asleep. The nap should not be more than 45 minutes and should not enter deep sleep. Deep sleep will only induce further fall in body temperature.When you wake from your Power Nap, you may feel drowsy and lethargic due to high melatonin levels. It is important to get your body back to normal temperature with the help of light physical movement and exposure to light.It is understandable if you feel tired even when you lead a sedentary lifestyle. This does not mean you need more sleep, but means that you need more movement and less sleep. This happens due to frequent dropping of body temperature.

A Little More About Body TemperatureAs you've learned, your body temperature is really an internal clock that keeps us awake and sleeping at certain times.It's also extremely important to understand that the rise and drop of body temperature is a hint for our body to produce the feelings of being awake or being tired. Whenever your body temperature begins to fall, you will feel tired, lethargic, and drowsier. Whenever your body temperature rises, you will feel more energetic, alert, and be able to focus better.Don't mistake the fall of body temperature at certain times during the day as the need to sleep. Your body temperature may rise and drop several times in the day as a response to the activities you're doing at the time.Whenever you put big physical demands on your body your body temperature will rise above the norm. As a response to any intensive physical activity, the body temperature drops for a while as soon as you stop the activity. For example, if you work an 8 hour shift at a job that requires intense activity, one might feel totally drained and ready to fall asleep when you come home at around 4 PM. What you'll actually find is that this feeling of tiredness is not a sincere desire to sleep, but rather a response from your body due to the drop of body temperature.If you resist sleeping at this moment and provide a “wind-down” period for your body after this period, body temperature will return to a normal and you will feel alert again.In the Powerful Sleep plan I would suggest that you nap for 10-45 minutes during your day to physically recharge yourself, it's ideal to take this nap when you experience this body temperature drop as it will help you sleep. Always limit your naps to 45 minutes to avoid entering deep sleep.After you wake up from your power nap it's normal to feel lethargic or drowsy, this is because your melatonin levels are higher. Get as much high intensity light as possible the moment you wake up, and make sure to MOVE your body to get your body temperature up and running again.If you currently live a very sedentary lifestyle, your body temperature will drop very often when you're sitting around on your butt or watching TV, so if you feel tired during the day understand it’s not because you need more sleep. It's because you need LESS SLEEP and MORE MOVEMENT!

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Amidst the craze that now exists about dieting options and methods of losing weight, there is one untapped area of medicine that shows great potential when it comes to helping a person lose weight. This is through herbal medicine.

There are a lot of products available in the market which promote natural weight loss.

Though the effects may not be instant, this is still a great option for overweight people to shed off those excess pounds and promote a better health.

When choosing a herbal product as a dietary supplement, make sure that you do your research and look for the benefits and side effects that it will have on your health.

Also look for ingredients which might be harmful to your health.

However, once you find the perfect herbal weight loss product for you, you will surely be satisfied with the results.

Here are some herbal weight loss options that you might want to look into:

Herbal dietary supplements.

These are diet pills which are made up of herbal and natural ingredients. Surf the Internet and you will surely come across these ‘natural diet pills’. Choose one that would best fit your weight loss needs.

Apple cider vinegar

Dietary supplements and pills which are made from apple cider vinegar is another great option to lose weight the herbal way. In addition to promoting weight loss, this product of nature helps improve your cholesterol level. In addition, it improves your high blood pressure and it helps prevent arthritis.

This one more advantage of going for herbal weight loss products. They not only promote weight loss but improves your overall health as well.

Tea.

Green tea is generally known as the “weight loss tea”. It is a natural treatment which is taken by overweight people, which helps cure obesity.